It is typical for double-sided coated substrates to be employed as electrodes in secondary cells, fuel cells, or the like. In double-sided coated substrates, the front and back faces of a substrate constituting a core are coated with a coating liquid containing an active substance, to form coated faces.
The normal procedure for manufacturing a double-sided coated substrate has an initial step for coating of the front face of the substrate core with a die head for front face coating and a step for approximately simultaneous coating of the back face with a die head for back face coating, followed by a step for transporting the double-sided coated substrate to a drying oven and drying the two coated faces, and a step of reeling off the double-sided coated substrate.
With regard to transporting the double-sided coated substrate, because the coated faces remain wet until approximately simultaneous coating of the faces is completed and the material reaches the drying oven, support as a continuous roll or the like is not possible. Further, in the drying oven, the coated substrate is supported by jetting a gas thereon from gas jets furnished in the upper and lower sections inside the drying oven, as disclosed in Patent Citation 1, for example.
Because of this, during transport of the double-sided coated substrate, the die head for back face coating and a backup roller are the only stable supporting members during coating of the point of coating up to the drying procedure in the drying oven, the coated substrate is unstable during transport, making the substrate prone to flapping or wrinkling during transport.
Accordingly, in co-pending Japanese Laid-open Patent Application 2005-213037 (Patent Citation 2), the present applicant proposed to dispose pairs of rotating bodies respectively at both edge sections of uncoated portions in the widthwise direction of the double-sided coated substrate, to support the substrate by nipping it from the front and back sides. With respect to the direction of transport, the orientation of the pairs of rotating bodies disposed at both edges is then readjusted simultaneously with interlocking operation of a link mechanism to tension the substrate outwardly in the widthwise direction, thereby preventing flapping, and smoothing out wrinkles.